This resource book covers a variety of topics on special education and rural education research and practice. The document is a collection of articles and resource listings. The articles are categorized into: (1) general (effective schools, special education, rural schools); (2) recruiting, retaining and training teachers; (3) financing rural special education; (4) policy and law; and (5) appropriate technology. Specific topics within these categories include: (1) integration of general and special education; (2) vocational education for special populations; (3) social skills assessment; (4) American Indian education; (5) at-risk students; (6) early childhood special education training; (7) special education staffing in rural areas; (8) support personnel training for serving rural disabled students; (9) teacher competencies in adapted physical education; (10) personnel standards for Part H of PL 99-457 (serving infants, toddlers, and their families); (11) legal responsibility for funding the education of the severely disabled; (12) the politics of special education; (13) the cultural context of policy; (14) distance education; and (15) microcomputer use in special education. Following the articles is a section on promising practices and case studies of effective schools. The final sections contain a list of resources and a bibliography on rural special education. (KS)